I should start by saying Tilly is my favorite character. Sure she’s a little annoying at times, but she’s the most authentic and relatable person on the show. (Closely followed by Saru, but this isn’t his episode.)
I’m really appreciating this season’s storytelling direction. It’s (finally) focusing more on the characters and how they fit into the world and how they work with each other, and less about the gimmicky contrivances. (I’m glad they hardly referenced the anomaly this week.)
Burnham gets her first (on screen) captain’s log. I suppose the TOS/TNG-style log voiceovers are too trite by now, but I’ve definitely missed them in Discovery. I wouldn’t mind hearing them a little more often.
Speaking of cliches, it seems like even 32nd century Starfleet technology can’t prevent the infamous shuttle crash. Is the even more infamous holodeck malfunction next? (come to think of it, we kinda got that last season…)
Apparently it’s *Doctor* David Cronenburg, who’s a consultant of some sort. Still not clear on what his position or background is at all. But he has a couple of good scenes framing the Tilly story, and his recounting of why he and Vance were so suspicious of Disco when they first arrived was interesting.
The story on Ni’var, by contrast, was… okay. I was a little confused whether either the two presidents were negotiating themselves for four months, or Rillak came personally to seal the deal. Either way, springing the “Vexit” clause (as I’m calling it) at the last minute was kinda a dick move, but typical for the purist Vulcan faction types.
I appreciate Michael and Saru’s softer touch at diplomacy compared to last season’s near-disastrous “Unification III”, but the solution strikes me as self-aggrandizing. The whole “independent committee” thing feels weird. And I’m also puzzled why something like that was necessary. Surely the Federation going all the way back to 2161 would’ve had some sort of secession procedures. (Cue awkward Brexit or US Civil War discussion here.) And at least 300 planets *did* secede before, whether through choice, neglect, or circumstance. So what’s the difference now?
And Tilly is leaving the ship to become an instructor at Starfleet Academy. I feel like this is a great development for her character. I hope this doesn’t mean she’s off the show as a main character, though! We’ll see how things develop, but I’m hoping they can keep us in touch with Tilly (and probably when Captain Saru gets his own ship).
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
She says she’s back later in the season but “wearing a different uniform”. Which could be a reference to being a Starfleet instructor - would they REALLY need different uniforms? Really? - but let’s be realistic here, it’ll be more fucking Mirror Universe bollocks, meaning Captain Killy. Christ, leave it alone already.
Posted by Krenim (Member # 22) on :
I thought this was another good episode. I'm almost tempted to say that I think Disco has finally grown the beard, but we still have most of the season left to go...
I'm hoping Tilly isn't leaving the show. I like her way too much.
Yeah, I caught that its Doctor Kovich now, too. Definitely good to see him again, I think Cronenberg is great in this role.
I, too, was thinking how all these planets had already left the Federation. However, given the entire Maquis debacle, I wouldn't be surprised if the Federation didn't have any formal secession mechanisms.
The Ni'var stuff had its ups and downs. Still digging the Saru/T'Rina relationship. Still liking Rillik. Kinda iffy on the whole "Michael bridges the gap" solution, but I concede she might be the only person who is technically still both a Fed citizen and a Vulcan/Ni'var citizen.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
What about her mother, though? I guess there’s a case for her being legally dead according to UFP records, and the suppression of Discovery’s history after season 2 suggests that wouldn’t have been corrected. I doubt there’d have been any reason or opportunity for her to formally renounce her citizenship. Or maybe Michael (also probably legally dead, after all, if not completely erased from the records and forbidden to be discussed by anyone - even her foster brother and parents - under penalty of torture) had to formally reaffirm her citizenship in a way her now-Ni’varian (?) mother wouldn’t have done?
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
So, uh, Gorev is supposed to be a Tellarite apparently? I thought he was a redesigned Naussicaan.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Really?! Did not see that at all.
Also, a thousand years of phaser technology and they can’t vapourise one fucking snow squid or ice octopus or whatever it was?
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
I’d had the same thought. This was already a problem in TNG and VOY, and now that the technology is even more advanced in the 32nd century, it really means that a lot of story complications can (or should) be solved with everyday technology.
They could’ve vaporized the creatures. They should’ve been able to use the escape transporters to beam far away from the crash site instead of desperately trudging across the ice. (Shouldn’t their tricombadges have escape transporters a la Nemesis?) There should’ve been a survival kit in the shuttle with a backup portable/disconnected comm to call for immediate rescue. The shuttle should’ve had an EMH (holos are everywhere) for the poor redshirt pilot.
For that matter, they said the shuttle was hit by a “rogue gamma ray burst”, but if it fried the shuttle systems as bad as it did, the burst should have also lethally irradiated all the people on board. (Lethal unless they reach a sickbay in time, or if there’s appropriate medication in reach, or…)
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
This is what happens when your writers don't understand the mythos. They claim to be fans, but none of them are like us, where they can see the glaring plot holes.
Honestly, at this stage, they should have 2 or 3 people like us, who really know their shit, to be read-through researchers on every script pointing out errors, holes, & flagrant violations.
Posted by Guardian 2000 (Member # 743) on :
Now, now, y'all cannot say they're not keeping to what came before. After all, Braga said canon is a straitjacket. They're just carrying on that finest tradition.
Zingers aside, this wouldn't be the first time writers sought to evoke prior events without recognizing the carefulness with believability that led to it. The Mutara Nebula was famously a plot device to put the ships in visually-exciting spitball range, but later Treks often showed similar. TOS grounded shuttle episodes and outright crashes like TNG's "Final Mission" were done with great caution, the latter involving the expense of building an alien ahuttle, which conveniently allowed for a total lack of supplies and the dramatic desperation therefrom (even though that should've been checked by the E-D crew, too). Later episodes of various crashes of Starfleet vehicles weren't so careful to uphold Starfleet's honor, both in DS9 and Voyager.
It is an unfortunate thing, but it is a thing.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
If you crunch the numbers it’d probably turn out there are way more “We’re buggering off somewhere in a small shuttle… and now we’ve crashed” episodes than there are holodeck malfunction episodes.